Criminal justice reporter

Athens-Clarke County police on Friday arrested an armed suspected crack dealer who previously eluded them several times.

Steven Ricole Scott, 38, is an ex-con who authorities said sold crack cocaine from a girlfriend’s apartment at Bethel Midtown Village.

In December, he avoided arrest twice the same day, once when an officer tried to nab Scott upon seeing him driving a motorcycle on its back wheel along the center line of Danielsville Road while passing other vehicles.

The officer stopped pursuing the motorcycle after it turned onto side streets, where police said continuing the chase might have endangered pedestrians and other motorists.

Earlier that same day, police said Scott ran from detectives after a traffic stop was conducted on his vehicle in which cocaine and packaging material were subsequently found.

Police finally got their man at about 2:50 a.m. Friday.

That’s when officers conducted a traffic stop on Gaines School Road on a van in which Scott was a passenger.

The driver, 36-year-old Jeijuana Harper of Highland Park Drive, was placed in custody after officers spotted bits of crack cocaine near Harper’s feet on the van’s floor board, police said.

Officers ordered Scott out of the van so that it could be searched, police said. As soon as an officer placed a handcuff on one of Scott’s wrist, the suspect removed an object from his pants waistband and threw it.

Police said the object was a semiautomatic pistol that was later determined to have been stolen.

As Scott struggled with officers, police said he dropped a bag that held about 9 grams of crack. He stopped resisting after one of the officers threatened to pepper spray him.

When searching Scott, police found he had nearly $1,300 cash and a digital scale.

A search of the van turned up 13 additional grams of crack, another scale and a half-dozen cellphones, police said.

Scott, of Catalpa Drive, was charged with possession with intent to distribute cocaine, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a firearm in the commission of a crime, theft by receiving stolen property and obstruction of a law enforcement officer.

Hall, the van’s driver, was charged with possession with intent to distribute cocaine, police said.

One of the arresting officers noted in a police incident report that prior to arresting Scott he “knew Mr. Scott had a violent history and was recently the victim of a shooting.” He also has an extensive arrest history and served time in state prison for convictions in Athens-Clarke and Barrow counties on drug, burglary and theft charges.

Scott additionally was convicted in U.S. District Court in 2006 on a charge of possession with intent to distribute cocaine base. He was initially sentenced to 58 months in federal prison, but his confinement was later reduced to 49 months.

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